The budget for the CCS facility, considered by the
International Energy Agency as a key technology to fight climate
change, has risen to 6 billion crowns ($1.02 billion) from 700
million estimated in 2006, according to Dagens Naeringsliv.

"If we don't have CCS, it will be very difficult to achieve
big cuts in carbon emissions," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens
Stoltenberg was quoted as saying.

"That's why we must believe in CCS even though it is proving
more difficult, or more expensive, than people thought a few
years ago."

CCS may cut the contribution of coal and gas-fired power
plants to global warming by trapping and burying the greenhouse
gas carbon dioxide (CO2), but it is untested on a commercial
scale.

The Mongstad project was initially seen as one of the first
to start full-scale operation, but has been plagued by setbacks.
[ID:nLDE64103B]

It is also a prestige project for Stoltenberg, who once said
CCS would be Norway's equivalent of the U.S. Apollo project of
the 1960s that put astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on
the moon.

Operator Statoil has a 20 percent share in the Mongstad test
centre, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote) has 2.44 percent, South
Africa's Sasol (SOLJ.J: Quote) has 2.44 percent, while the Norwegian
state holds 75.12 percent.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche; editing by James Jukwey)